palin panic
by Ari Holtz
Published: August 29, 2008
John McCain has announced that Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska is his choice for vice president. As a short-term move, it’s pure genius. As a long-term piece of strategy, however, the pick is a fool’s choice reeking of desperation and over-thinking. It could very possibly sink McCain’s hope of winning the White House.
First, the good. The pick, only the second woman to ever be on a major party ticket, immediately and completely wiped Barack Obama’s historic and wondrous speech and convention off of the news and nearly out of the American consciousness. The pick is a historic one. The press loves such a story, as it should. The story and the pick has a degree of juice that a run-of-the-mill choice such as Tim Pawlenty or Mitt Romney could never have attained.
Further, choosing a woman, McCain potentially widens his demographic. Women tend to be Democrats in greater numbers than they are Republicans. The Obama campaign spent much of their convention attempting to firm up this voting pool, paying homage to Hillary Clinton and emphasizing their seriousness on issues such as choice, equal pay, education and health care. The Palin pick throws a brief wrench into the demographic math for Democrats.
So, the Palin pick has a wow-factor to it and, momentarily, at least, reaches out to women. But what else does it do?
Sure, Palin’s pro-life stance will make social conservatives happy. She is a hunting-fishing-mom-of-five every-woman who counters the attack that McCain, unable to remember how many houses he owns and married to an heiress, is out of touch. In Palin’s inexperience, however, and in her vaulting over more seasoned Republican women for the job, she completely muddles McCain’s message of experience and judgment.
The McCain campaign has long lacked a purpose or premise other than that Obama is too inexperienced, too much of a risk. This pick completely destroys that idea, leaving McCain with nothing.
Sarah Palin has been governor of Alaska, a tiny state of 670,000, for a mere two years. Prior to that she was a mayor of a town of 9000. This is a population less than 1/20th the size of Obama’s district as a state senator. She has zero experience in national politics and none in international affairs. She makes Obama look seasoned and wizened, an elder statesman. This is the person that McCain is putting one heartbeat away from the Presidency?
John McCain is 72-years-old. He has had recurrent skin cancer. And in his self-heralded great judgment he is putting a 24-month governor and small town mayor one heart attack away from having to stare down Vladimir Putin, fight al-Qaida and the Taliban, honorably and successfully exit Iraq, and restore America’s standing amongst the nations of the world?
How is that good judgment? How does that illustrate a high value on experience? How can any attack on Barack Obama as being too large a risk, too inexperienced, ever hold water again?
In several days or a week ,the wow-factor of the pick will fade. The significance of her being a woman will fade with analysis of her weak stances on issues important to women such as equal pay, health care and education. And then we will be left with the real person. The real Sarah Palin. And while a likable woman and popular small-state governor, she is way out of her league being next-in-line to run the free world.
John McCain just failed his first test in presidential judgment, a test that Barack Obama, in picking capable and experienced Joe Biden as his VP nominee, passed marvelously.
This is a pick of political panic. It is an over-reach to attempt to counter the excitement of a soaring Democratic National Convention and the energy of a historic campaign. Make no mistake, though. Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton. She is Dan Quayle.
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August 29th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Palin is the perfect match for McCain and this ticket is now unstoppable. Americans want something new and the democrats have elected an african-american. Republicans have a female. That cancels out. McCain attracts independents and even many democrats and moderates. He was lacking support from his base. Now, his base is excited and backing this ticket whole-heartedly. Palin is a young, powerful, conservative woman. She adds the youthfulness that obama brings to his ticket.
Now, although she has only been governer for two years, she holds an executive position. She runs that state. She adds executive experience to the ticket. The GOP still has the “obama is inexperienced” attack because Obama is the presidential candidate, not the VP. Presidents make the calls, not the VPs. McCain is very experienced, he didnt need to pick another old, very experienced VP. He is the one calling the shots, not Palin.
You think Palin cant handle putin, osama? Shes very tough. I would even say she more aggressive than Obama. You say that Obama made an excellent pick bc he picked biden, who has experience. Well thats good, because Obama has none. He pretty much hired an advisor to tell him what to do.
McCain/Palin will win this election with this very smart choice by McCain. She brings youthfulness, conservatism, charisma, and everything obama brings to his ticket except that obama’s inexperience has a greater effect because he is the presidential candidate and not biden.
August 29th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I… um… hold on, still trying to hold down my coffee…
Okay, whew.
Do I think Palin can’t handle the PM of Russia and a guy who hasn’t been touched nearly seven years on? No, I don’t, and I don’t even know how anyone could even begin to qualify her in that regard. I mean, what, has she had to deal with some seriously POed reindeer getting into the rec center? Did a snow plows in Wasilla go down a couple years ago and she and her husband stayed up all night working on it together? I hear she’s a hell of a free throw shooter; maybe her and Barack can get together on a game of HORSE some time soon.
I’d love to share in your delusion; it must be worlds of fun. But if you honestly believe that someone with half a term as governor of the least populated state in the union (and of course I don’t want to overlook her time on the city concil and as mayor of that booming metropolis of 5900) has that magicial executive experience that we’re all so intently searching for in our vice-presidential candidates then all the power to you, friend. That minor in politics from UI should come in handy with all of those tough decisions she’d have to make (aggresively, of course) after Sir John keels over before the end of his first term.
Cheers!
August 29th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
And sorry, I forgot Alaska has moved up to 47th in population. So I’ll go ahead and correct myself on that before it becomes the focal point of any rebuttal.
Back to fact that the GOP still considers anyone that’s held any chief executive position in any capacity for any period of time (High school class president? APPLY NOW!!!) someone blessed with the all-important “EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE” gene…
August 29th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Thanks for helping out my argument. Now that we’ve established that palin and obama have no experience, we have biden and mccain left. Oh wait, biden is just the vice presidential nominee today , hes not going to be the one calling the shots whereas McCain will be.
Biden didnt add a lot more votes to obama while Palin will add a tremendous amount of women who will feel inclined to vote for a woman just like african-americans are more inclined to vote for obama. Additionally, not only will she bring in women voters, but also the GOP base. Ive spoken to many of my conservative friends today and witnessed the responses of conservatives on other websites and forums that people who were just not going to vote at all are now going to support mccain/palin.
So, Shane, I am confused about what your point is. Palin cant handle putin, thats the only thing i got out of it, and what? Obama, the community organizer can??? haha.
Happy labor day weekend.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
My point was that you made this great little buzz word case for her and how wonderful of a selection she is, and that when it comes down to it you know as well as anybody else that she was picked to draw women voters, whether they be Hillary voters who either won’t vote for Obama specifically or a black candidate in general. It’s intentionally polarizing and has nothing to do with whether or not she can actually ad some depth to an administration. Of course for that to happen she would need to know what “that VP does everyday” in the first place.
Obama croaks? At least there’s someone there to step in that’s, you know, been around the block a couple times. And Obama’s a hell of a lot less likely to drop dead in his first term than the 72-year old (Happy birthday, John!!!) cancer survivor. So, I mean, VP’s do *something* and they do matter beyond simply trying to get a hand on the 18 million Hillaryites out there.
But keep selling; I’ll guarantee 50.00000000000001% of the public isn’t buying.
August 29th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
And Happy Labor Day to you, sir!
August 30th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
She’s not Dan Quayle. Sure, her resume is thin, but she has more executive experience than either Obama or Biden. Sure, she was mayor of a town of less than 10,000. Obama was a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER! Does he really want to make experience the qualifier for being president. If he attacks her on that, it destroys him and his message of “bringing change to Washington”.
Besides, everybody seems to be forgetting that Dan Quayle won.
August 30th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I’ll be the first to say “experience,” whatever that means and whatever effect people imagine it has, is overrated. OVERRATED. I will never knock Palin for lack of “experience,” nor will I knock Obama for the same reasons. All 4 politicans on the world’s stage right now can be capable presidents. They are all successful, ambitious, intelligent politicans. Period. How does being a mayor of a town of 10,000 differ from being mayor of a town of 20,000? 50,000? 1,000,000? What is the tangible change of judgment that occurs when commanding each of these differing levels of population? How does one decide differently as leader of a city as opposed to leader of a country? The core values remain the same.
“Experience” should be removed from the equation for both democrats and republicans. It’s a silly argument. People can learn jobs, but they can’t learn work ethic, values, intelligence, opinions, or personality. This is why businesses don’t hire employees based solely on their resume. They need to meet the person.
In November, people are going to vote along party lines or they’re going to vote for the ticket they identify with the most. That’s it. This “experience” argument is ridiculous…
August 31st, 2008 at 4:44 am
Paulin is perfect. It shows that McCain is open to change also, just a bit less dramatic. It gives those who are unsure about Obama a reason to go ahead and vote Republican. I think if you compare the Veep announcements, McCain won.
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
2 things quickly:
1) The ‘experience’ thing is not trivial. Since Gov. Palin has been a Governor, and a Mayor, and has been involved in running a small business, we would all do wel to remember that these 4 people are running for office in the Executive branch of the government. Near as I can tell, she has more management experience than the other 3 combined.
2) Obama is running as an agent of change. I thought his “change doesn’t come from Washington” line was brilliant. So in order to add some ‘weight’ to his ticket…he taps another Senator who has been in that post since the Nixon administrtation. How much further ‘inside’ could one be? McCain has always positioned himself as the ‘maverick’ outsider barely tolerated by the establishment in his own party. His pick has the scalps of at least 2 GOP party members hanging on her belt. She may not be as ’seasoned’ as we’d like, but there is no denying that she strengthens the central theme of the campaign, rather than diluting it.
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Experience Part 2:
She’s held elected office for 5 years longer than Mr. Obama.
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Seasoned is a synonym for experience. You can’t say she’s not as “seasoned” as you’d like and say she has the experience we need. … She was mayor of a town with fewer than 9000 people. That makes her more qualified than those 9000 not more than Ridge, Lieberman, or, I can’t believe I’m saying this, Guiliani. She was picked for one reason, or rather two, and that’s not a reason to hire someone for this job. Race doesn’t matter. Gender doesn’t matter. Ability and skill do. Being in the PTA is important; being mayor is important. They provide sound skills for making a difference. But if they are the only qualificiations or “seasoning” one needs, then there are whole heck of a lot of other qualified folks out there.
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Oh, figured I could hop back in here after the long (looooong) weekend.
1) Obama was a community organizer IN HIS 20′S soon after GRADUATING from COLUMBIA and a COUPLE OTHER stops ALONG the WAY! IT was a JOB! Palin was DOING SPORTSCASTING then! But that’s NEITHER here nor THERE!(Yeah, so what if the caps DON’T MAKE sense and AREN’T NECESSARY!?!?!)
2. In all honesty, this experience crap is getting old. None of them has been President of the United States. I mean, if we think “executive experience” is the ultimate decider then we should got get Bush I and Carter in the White House because they’ve still got a term each. Can’t get much more executive experience than that fantasy ticket.
For me, what it comes down to is I’d rather have the two guys with JD’s than a ticket with a guy who finished 894th out of 899 in his class and the other with a communications degree from U.Idaho. I’m sorry, we’ve spent the last seven-plus years with someone probably (maybe) around average intelligence, and that’s being generous. I think we deserve better, and I know we’ll get better so whatever. Have fun in St. Paul this week! Hopefully our continually deteriorating infrastructure doesn’t let us down again this summer.
Oh, and Obama was PRESIDENT of the HARVARD Law ReVIEW! So he’s been a “president” before, which gives him an experience quotient (EQ) of .7165, well within the norm for a first term president. Take THAT!
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Sandra: I’m not at all certain that she has enough experience, my point was that she’s the only one up there with the right kind of experience. Legislators get to write the laws and then move on, executives have to operate within, and enforce those laws. The ’skills’ are not the same at all.
Shane: Feeling a little stressed out are we? Love your line about the 2 JD’s. I think William Shakespeare said all that needs to be said about lawyers. Particularly lawyers writing laws.
September 4th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Yeah, it’s easy to “enforce those laws” when you fire everyone without just cause.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Sandra, you inspire all of us with your shining definition-by-example of “non sequitur”.
Have you simply reached the bottom of the list of ‘talking points’?
Are you talking about the attempt to get a brother-in-law canned after he allegedly tasered a child, or the firings of state officials, since held up in court? Not that it matters, as it has no real bearing on the discussion at hand.
These sorts of ‘arguments’ only fuel the impression that the left in is a full-bore, wild-eyed panic over this nomination. Thanks again.
September 14th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Me thinks this Maverick and Filly are still tied to the old boys hitching post…. U all think maybe we are going to get Bushwhacked again!